GeForce GTX 460 1GB vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 660, which features a GPU core clock speed of 980 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1502 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also features 960 SPUs, 80 Texture Address Units, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (14%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 660 is 25% faster than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 28992 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is a lot (more or less 107%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40600 (107%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 is the winner, though only just barely. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1920 (9%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.